A 52 Week Autobiography Through Music - Week 4 - Bowie from Pancycle on Vimeo.

Uninhibited, pure, fearless creativity. That is what comes to mind when I think about David Bowie. As I say in the video it is not for me to tell anyone about him. People have to discover this and for that matter any music on their own and with Bowie in particular there are just too many different stages and genres for it all to be summed up in a few words. So instead of writing what I feel about Bowie's work I rather feel compelled to write about the unifying theme that ties together all the music I will talk about in these 52 weeks.

This series is about music but this is something I feel about all art. Hearing and appreciating music is purely a subjective experience however I have always felt that behind the personal experience of liking or disliking music there exist implicit layers of creative value that are the result the integrity, hard work and humanity of the artist. In my opinion this is were art gets its depth and mystery and the power to transform. When listening to music I love, apart from my personal emotional reaction is the feeling that I am not being told the whole story. Its a sense that there is something unknown lurking around the corner. If I hear music and feel that everything I need to know is presented in that performance - all the information and history is there, then it won’t stick with me. This is not just true of Songs with words. Instrumental music can be just as full of depth and mystery. It is this sense of not knowing that draws me in and makes me want to hear more, explore more. And it is in the internal experience of exploring and trying to understand what is hidden and deeper in music that we can find meaning for ourselves as human beings. David Bowie, was a master story teller who could keep one guessing, not in any kind of heavy handed way but rather in a playful way. As an artist he was completely vulnerable. He always made the art he wanted to make rather than making safe decisions to sell records. He challenged people to come along with him on the journey in a way that few artists do. And he explored humanity deeply.

I think being exposed to this music at a young age gave me the ability to be aware of and curious about those intangible layers of value in art and music. So that's really what this project is about: Its how music more than anything else has illuminated my experience of life and what it means to be human.